


Christmas Miracle

by captainamergirl



Series: Christmases When You Were Mine [6]
Category: General Hospital
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-30 23:57:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12120102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/captainamergirl
Summary: Ric holds vigil at Reese's bedside after the fateful train wreck (that left her in a coma).





	Christmas Miracle

**Christmas Miracle**  
  
He had kept vigil at her bedside for weeks now. He was here every night like clockwork and had been since the train crash. He had been the one to carry her broken body from the mine shaft when everyone else had assumed that she was a lost cause. The walls around them had literally been caving in; he had a new daughter to think about and protect- his little unsinkable Molly - and yet when push came to shove; he couldn’t give up on Reese. She never had given up on him, even when he’d given her every reason to do so.  
  
“Alright, Reese,” he murmured as he watched her unmoving, tiny form lost beneath a pile of blankets and what seemed like a million and one contraptions. “It’s ten minutes to midnight on Christmas Eve. What do you say you open your eyes and finally come back to everyone who cares about you?” He watched her pale face. She didn’t so much as flutter an eyelash.  
  
He sighed. He was a lawyer - a damned good one - and he knew that when opposition was at its height, he needed to change tactics to make sure that he got what the result he wanted. What he wanted was for Reese to wake the hell up. She was the only one who had ever seemed to appreciate him. And if he were honest with himself, he’d have to admit that he would miss her if she never came out of this damn coma.  
  
He dropped his chin into his hands, positioning his elbows on the mattress beside her. “Okay, I could keep lying to you. I could say that there’s been a bunch of people coming in and out of here every day begging you to wake up but that’s not the case. I’m the only one who’s darkened your door. Other than the doctors and nurses, of course. And the medical assistants who give you a sponge bath… I am trying to make a point here, Reese. I’m telling you that I’m the only person you can depend on now. I know that’s a scary thought but you already know all my flaws and you’ve never judged me for them.  
  
“You need me and guess what, Marshall? I need you too. We need each other. I’m not going to be okay if you don’t wake up. You’re the only person in the whole world who even tolerates me. Maybe I need you more than you actually need me so why don’t you wake up already? I don’t want to think I pulled you out of that mine shaft – at great personal risk to my person, might I add – for nothing. See that’s me being selfish again. Go on and wake up and tell me how selfish I am if you’d like. Just wake the hell up. Please.”  
  
He watched her impassive face. Even scrubbed free of makeup and pale as a ghost, she was beyond pretty. He wanted her to open her eyes and look at him. She was the only person who had ever truly seen him.  
  
“Come on, Reese, give me something to work with here,” he said. His voice was demanding. “Open those damn eyes of yours or I swear my Christmas gift to you will be yanking that plug out of the wall. I don’t want to but it seems the only recourse when you won’t so much as lift a finger to help yourself.” He sighed and rubbed his stubbled cheek. It had been weeks since he had shaved. He spent as much time as he could here and the other time at work or with Molly, whenever Alexis was in a slightly charitable mood and let him see his daughter. He hadn’t even shopped for presents yet. His infant daughter and his young soon-to-be-former stepdaughter would be getting candy canes and rolled up dollar bills in their stocking this year. That was all.  
  
He sighed loudly and looked at his watch. “One minute till Christmas arrives, Reese. You’ve got one minute to do something – anything – to prove I should keep coming here, that I’m not wasting my damn time.”  
  
She made no move, just as he had both expected and feared. He stood and in frustration, he picked up the little plastic Christmas tree the hospital staff had put on a tray beside her bed. He hurled it across the room and the little plastic and glass ornaments smashed into the wall and shattered into so many irreparable pieces.  
  
“Dammit, Reese, look what you’ve pushed me to. I’ve had enough of this. This is it. I’m pulling the plug. You obviously want that or you’d have woken up by now. I’d hate for anyone to say that I kept you on life support because I am pathetic. You know I hate being pathetic for anyone… You know me, Reese, you do.”  
  
He sighed, feeling his eyes burn with tears he swore he would never shed. To cry was to show weakness and he knew better than anyone that weakness could be used against you. He never should have let Reese get so close to him. He knew he was only going to lose her, like he had everybody else. He fucked things up and in return, people left him – too often in a body bag.  
  
He stalked over to the thick big gray cord stuck in the outlet. His hands found the end of it and he watched Reese again. She looked so fragile when he’d always found her to be one of the strongest people he’d ever known. But maybe it was time to say goodbye. Maybe this is what she wanted, to be free from all her cares and all the hurt and pain life had afforded her.  
  
He shook his head and his hand closed around the cord tightly. He was just about to yank it free when he heard rustling in the bed. He turned around to see that Reese’s eyes were open and she was clawing at the bed sheets, as if she were desperate to get up and stop him.  
  
“Reese?” He asked, unable to believe somehow that he wasn’t having a really nice dream.  
  
She stared up at him with hooded brown eyes, blinking at him again and again so he would not do what he had been threatening to do. He sighed but grinned wickedly as his hand fell away from the cord. “Well my ultimatum worked, I see. Welcome back to the land of the living, Ms. Marshall.”  
  
She smiled at him beneath her mask. He wouldn’t say it aloud but this was exactly what he would call a Christmas miracle. He had never believed anything could go right in his pathetic life but maybe, just maybe, this was the beginning of a sharp veer in the path of his life, headed towards better times.


End file.
